"There was no barking, no noise," Walsh said. "It was like when you watch Wild Kingdom, when the lions bring down the water buffalo."

But thanks to Walsh and State Trooper Rupert De Los Reyes, who responded within minutes of Walsh's call to 911, the pony is alive, although severely injured, and is being treated at an animal hospital in Patterson, N.Y., owner Michael Robbins said Thursday.

"She (Walsh) is the hero," Robbins said. "We went to the post office this morning and hugged her. Without her, our horse would have been dead."

Regional Animal Control Officer Audrey McKay said the dogs, which escaped from a New Fairfield home Wednesday afternoon, have been impounded while the incident is under investigation.

Walsh, a Sherman woman who has been a letter carrier for eight years, was putting mail in a box across from the Robbins residence at about 1 p.m. when she saw the 13-year-old pony, named Billy, running around the paddock with a dog in pursuit.

Because the Robbins family also owns a dog, her initial thought was the animals were playing.

"Then I saw the dog latch on to the horse," she said.

Walsh quickly called 911, then drove into the Robbins' yard, yelling and screaming at the pit bulls, to no avail.

Within four minutes, De Los Reyes, who had been patrolling about a mile away, was on the scene, she said.

The trooper entered the enclosure, service revolver in one hand, baton in the other, but because the dogs were so close to the horse, he couldn't get off a clean shot, Robbins said he was told by the trooper.

So the trooper clubbed the dogs repeatedly until they finally loosened their grip, then yelled for Walsh to lead the pony to safety.

"He just took control of the situation," Walsh said.

By the time Michael Robbins and his wife, Jeannie, arrived, the yard was filled with police cruisers and neighbors.

Also present was the dogs' owner, John Lukse, who lives about a quarter-mile away.

"He was very apologetic," said Robbins. "He said he had been raking leaves and the dogs got out of their pen when his wife opened the door."

Several telephone calls left for Lukse on Thursday weren't returned.

Robbins said the pony belongs to his 9-year-old daughter, Katie, who was at school when her pet was attacked.

"She rides him and loves him and feeds him. I'm almost in tears thinking about it," Robbins said.

Billy suffered severe injuries to his face, one eye and legs. He is intensive care at New England Equine Practice in Patterson, N.Y., but is expected to survive, he said.

Robbins said he plans to write a letter to De Los Reyes's commanding officer, praising the trooper for his actions.

"This could have been a million times worse if it weren't for the quick actions of everybody involved," Jeannie Robbins said.

Walsh said the incident had left her shaken, but she shrugged off the Robbins' comments that she acted heroically.

SHERMAN -- A New Fairfield man whose two pit bulls mauled a pony in Sherman on Wednesday has been cited by Regional Animal Control officials for three misdemeanor charges.

He will get his dogs back after he complies with the conditions of a restraining order, including building an escape-proof pen.

John Lukse, of Oak Street, has been issued summonses for a single count of keeping a nuisance dog and two counts of allowing dogs to roam.

Regional Animal Control Officer Audrey McKay said Thursday that both dogs remain impounded. She said the restraining order requires Lukse to build the pen and to muzzle the dogs if he takes them off his property.

McKay said it is up to a judge to order any stronger measures.

Lukse was given the option of signing the dogs over to Animal Control after they attacked Billy, a 600-pound pony who is the pet of Michael and Jeannie Robbins 9-year-old daughter, Katie. The incident occurred in the pony's paddock outside the Robbins' Route 39 home in Sherman.

McKay said Lukse chose not to sign over the dogs at this time.

Meanwhile, another New Fairfield resident claimed that the same dogs that attacked Billy killed her cat last month.

Jackie Germann, of Candle Hill Road, said she confronted Lukse after finding her 7-year-old cat Brutus torn apart in her driveway two-and-a-half weeks ago, the morning after her husband had seen the two dogs roaming in their yard.

Lukse admitted that his dogs, Petey and Dozer, had escaped the previous evening, she said.

McKay said that Lukse had been cited for allowing the dogs to roam on that occasion but that Animal Control officials couldn't prove the animals were responsible for Brutus's death.

"Nobody saw the cat attacked. If we could have proven it, it never would have come to this," McKay said, referring to the attack on the pony.

Contacted by The News-Times on Thursday, Lukse declined to answer questions but issued a statement in which he said he would take responsibility for the actions of his dogs for Wednesday's mauling.

Lukse said his dogs have always been treated properly, and they have spent their lives around children and adults with no previous incidents.

"I have expressed my deepest apologies to the Robbins family," he said.

Lukse wouldn't comment on Germann's allegation that his dogs had killed her cat.

Billy sustained numerous severe bites after the dogs escaped from Lukse's home, located about a quarter-mile away.

Letter carrier Anna Walsh was delivering mail in the neighborhood about 1 p.m. when she saw the attack and called 911.

State Trooper Rupert De Los Reyes responded and saved the pony. He fell and injured his leg while chasing one of the dogs away.

He was out of work on Thursday, state police said.

Billy is being treated at New England Equine Practice in Patterson, N.Y., and is expected to recover, Jeannie Robbins said.

Jackie Germann said her family was devastated by their cat's death.

"He was like a member of the family," she said, adding that she didn't want to see the dogs returned to Lukse.

Lukse's written statement n When contacted by The News-Times on Thursday, John Lukse, the pit bulls' owner, declined to comment. Instead, Lukse offered the following written statement: "My dogs have always been treated properly, trained and well taken care of. They have always been around adults and children, and there have never been any incidents. "I've expressed my deepest apologies to the Robbins family and would like to do so now in print. I intend to take responsibility for the actions of my two dogs, and as animal lovers know they are like my family. "I also intend to ensure the future safety of my neighbors and their pets." -- John Lukse of New Fairfield, speaking about Wednesday's attack on a pony in Sherman by his two pit bulls

Never make someone a priority in your life when that someone treats you like an option.

I'm sorry and this may upset some folks, but if the cat is outside and especially outside of its yard, then it is subject to many horrible things. While not excusing the dogs. I'm not saying the dogs didn't kill the cat, and I feel for the cat owners.

Typically, dogs involved with livestock is not aggression. It is a play behavior that is out of control. I know that sounds harsh, but dogs do not typically get involved with livestock as a matter of aggression. From a dogs perspective it is great fun to chase something and especially something that runs, kicks, twists and makes noise.

Yeah, I helped some numbskull a couple weeks back when I was driving by and saw dogs chasing ponies in a pasture. It was an aussie and a GSD, the owner was a twit, but it looked like everyone was unscathed. Often it winds up w/the dogs getting kicked, which stops many of them.When I was a teenager, I used to ride my horse through a neighborhood where dogs would come out and chase us. It made his day when we were riding through the meadow and found one of the dogs. I didn't let my horse catch it, but he sure enjoyed chasing it.

MILTON, N.Y. -The exotic water birds never had a chance against the two enormous St. Bernards who transformed the normally tranquil aviary behind a town home into a killing field. "There was blood and guts and feathers everywhere," said Milton Animal Control Officer Richard Pine Thursday describing the gruesome scene at the Muddyduck Water Fowl Breeding Center Inc., owned by bird enthusiasts Clyde Robinson Jr. "They didn't have time to eat the birds because they were on a killing frenzy."

By the time the two canines were removed from the fenced-in pen that early February morning they had slaughtered 170 of the water fowl and maimed another half dozen, according to an incident report. Waterfowl are birds that swim and live near water, including ducks, geese, and swans.

Some of the species include African yellowbill, Argentine red shoveler, Philippine duck and trumpeter swan. The document pegged the worth of the dead species - some of which are endangered - at nearly $39,000. But Robinson, 40, insists no amount of money can compensate him for the time and painstaking effort he put into acquiring the required permits, getting them quarantined and breeding the animals. In the case of two pure Hawaiian ducks, it took two years to get a special import permit and a more than a decade to locate the animals from a zoo in Germany, Robinson said.

Robinson says his "years of hard work were destroyed in one evening." He seeks damages from the homeowners insurance of the man who owns the dogs, David Hyatt of Greenfield. Hyatt says he feels "awful" about what happened, but finds it hard to believe his usually "great" dogs that he raised from the time they were puppies are killers.

"Knowing my dogs and their nature, I find it hard to believe," he said by phone Thursday.

"The only thing I'm guilty of is that dogs accidentally got out." He says they did so by hopping onto a large snowbank and over a 6-foot fence. An examination by a veterinarian shows the dogs had more than 100 quills on their bodies, including their mouth and face, but "no bird matter within their digestive system," Hyatt added.

As a result, he argued, he finds it "hard to believe they did that extensive damage."

Still, he faces two counts each of allowing a dog to run at large and creating a nuisance and has hired an attorney to represent him. Pine, the Milton animal control officer, says he was summoned during the early morning hours of Feb. 15 to Robinson's home at 537 Rowland St. for a call of dogs destroying property. Robinson's mother, Nancy Robinson, and girlfriend Eileen Perron pointed him toward the aviary but he only got within 20 to 30 feet of the structure before the angry growls of the two dogs stopped him in his tracks. Their faces, he said, were covered with blood, mud, water, and porcupine quills.

Perron told him she knew who owned the dogs and she drove about four miles with Pine to 14 Middle Grove Road in neighboring Greenfield to David Hyatt's house. Pine says Hyatt later removed the two dogs, which he estimated weighed about 150 pounds, from the enclosure and put them in his truck. By then, the damage had already been done and the women were crying frantically.

Robinson, who was at a campground in North Carolina en route to Tennessee to pick up more waterfowl, said he threw his cell phone in disgust when his mother gave him the bad news. He cut his trip short and returned home.

"It was a lot of hard work that went down the drain in one night," he said Thursday, noting he is "irritated" that Hyatt refuses to acknowledge what the animals did.

I always find it interesting when even law enforcement want to assign human values to animals (can't remember how to spell the 10 dollar word)....such as in a killing frenzy. Silly boy, the dogs were having a wonderful time playing. Can you imagine a better toy for a St Bernard than something like water fowl. They waddle, they flap, they squawk and they peck...I really don't mean to sound harsh..but we had a similar incident with Saints and rabbits.

I told folks that to the saints, those rabbits were like the best squeaky toy they'd ever seent.

I'm not defending the dog owner, who with his statements makes himself look incredibly insensitive and stupid and should be held accountable, I'm just saying I'm pretty sure the dogs were just playing.

SHERMAN -- Two pit bulls that mauled 9-year-old Katie Robbins' pet pony in Sherman last week were euthanized Thursday after the New Fairfield man who owned them allowed them to be destroyed.

Regional Animal Control Officer Audrey McKay said John Lukse gave up ownership of Petey and Dozer on Thursday morning after she met with him at length Wednesday afternoon.

"He signed them over this morning, and they were taken to a veterinarian and put down," McKay said.

Lukse, who'd owned the dogs for a 1﻿ 1/2 years, called the decision "heartbreaking."

"As a responsible pet owner, I am sorry this happened," he said. "I have done what I think is best."

The dogs had been in the custody of Animal Control officials since March 31, after they got loose from Lukse's Oak Street home and cornered Billy, a 13-year-old, 600-pound pony owned by the Robbins family in his paddock on Route 39, about a quarter-mile away.

"I think it's very sad because I love animals," said Jeannie Robbins, Katie's mother. "But on the other hand, I can sleep better knowing these dogs won't come back to my property."

The pony is now at a horse rehabilitation facility in New York state, and Katie visits him for at least two hours every day.

"He gets better every day, but he still needs round-the-clock care," Jeannie Robbins said. "He has a lot of open wounds that are going to take time to heal."

Letter carrier Anna Walsh witnessed the attack, which she compared to a scene from the nature series "Wild Kingdom."

Walsh called 911, and State Trooper Rupert De Los Reyes, who responded to the call, used his baton to stop the attack and save the pony.

"We can't say enough about these people. They went above and beyond their normal job duties," Jeannie Robbins said. "They jumped right in and took action that saved our pony's life."

Two of Lukse's neighbors, Jackie Germann of Candle Hill Road and Annette Scarcello of Caola Lane, blamed Petey and Dozer for killing their pet cats a few weeks before the pony was attacked.

Jackie Germann couldn't be reached for comment on Thursday, but Scarcello said she was relieved that her own dog would now be safe.

"I'm an animal lover, and the thought of any animal being destroyed is sad," Scarcello said.

Lukse said his dogs "would be missed by family members, neighbors and children who knew them best and loved them.

"I loved, cared for and housed them responsibly, and take full responsibility for their actions," he said.

Lukse was cited for three misdemeanors, including keeping a nuisance dog and two counts of allowing a dog to roam in connection with the pony attack. He is scheduled to appear in Danbury Superior Court on Monday.

"He still has to go to court, but I'm sure the judge will take into consideration that he signed the dogs over to us," McKay said.

The vicious attack by two pit bulls on a pet pony in Sherman last week is, without question, appalling. At the same time, no one takes pleasure in Thursday's news that the two dogs were euthanized. But in this case, it was the right decision.

On the day of the attack, the dogs were leaping and biting the mane, neck and tail of the poor pony named Billy -- a 9-year-old girl's pet -- which couldn't shake off the dogs or escape.

It took a state trooper to repeatedly club the two dogs before they finally released their grip.

Given the chilling image of the attack, it would be easy -- and tempting -- to call for a ban on pit bulls, as a good number of towns across the country have done.

But that is not the answer. We believe it is too wide of a net to cast.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that approximately 4.7 million people are bitten by dogs every year.

While some breeds of pit bull terriers are thought to be aggressive, not all necessarily are. And many other types of dogs, such as Rottweilers, can become aggressive and bite. But it doesn't mean they will, either.

Some places, such as Miami-Dade County in Florida, have issued ordinances banning ownership of pit bulls. That county can issue a $500 fine to anyone acquiring or keeping pit bulls, and the owner can be forced to remove the dogs from the county.

Legislating against one type of dog doesn't prevent attacks by others.

After the surprising and terrible mauling by a chimpanzee of a woman in Stamford in February, many people are on edge about uncontrollable -- and inappropriate -- pets.

What is needed with dogs -- and other pets -- is committed responsibility by owners.

The two pit bulls in the Sherman pony attack lived about a quarter-mile away in New Fairfield. The dogs escaped their pen when the door was opened; according to an animal control officer, that's not the first time it happened.

The owner was cited by Regional Animal Control officials for three misdemeanor charges, and the dogs were impounded until they were euthanized.

Before the dogs were put down, the owner had apologized and said he intended to "ensure the future safety of my neighbors and their pets." The pit bulls were, after all, his pets.

No one should have to live in fear of animal attacks. In this case, no one will have to anymore.

Responsibility of pet owners, common sense and consideration of others are ultimately what is needed.

Never make someone a priority in your life when that someone treats you like an option.